A 2193/S 1816

NJEA supports A-2193 (Egan-Jones)/S-1816 (Diegnan). This bill requires the State Board of Education to create a computer science endorsement on the instructional certificate. To receive the endorsement, an individual would be required to already have an instructional certificate, and complete 15 credits in computer science, as determined by the State Board. The endorsement would be valid in all public schools and required to teach computer science in grades 7-12.

The creation of this endorsement is designed to improve the quality and quantity of the offerings in computer science. Computer science is an important skill to learn in the modern era, and learning computer programming will give students valuable skills in both careers and college.

While NJEA is now supporting this bill, as this version addresses the majority of the concerns we had, we maintain that the creation of endorsements, and the requirements to receive an endorsement, should rest with the State Board of Education rather than be addressed in legislation. We are also concerned that the scope of the endorsement needs to be well defined in regulation to avoid confusion between computer technology or applications, and computer science.